Sexual Orientation and Exposure to Violence Among U.S. Patients Undergoing Abortion

Objective

To assess the characteristics of patients undergoing abortion in the United States according to sexual orientation and exposure to sexual and physical violence.

Methods

Data for this observational study come from the Guttmacher Institute's 2014 Abortion Patient Survey, which obtained information from 8,380 individuals obtaining abortions at nonhospital facilities in the United States; 7,656 of those (91%) provided information on sexual orientation identity. We used simple logistic regression to assess differences between heterosexuals and three sexual minority groups—bisexual, lesbian, and something else—according to demographic characteristics and exposure to sexual and physical violence. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess associations between sexual orientation and exposure to violence.

Results

Among patients undergoing abortion in 2014, 4.1% identified as bisexual (n=316), 1.1% as something else (n=81), and 0.4% as lesbian (n=28); 94.4% identified as heterosexual (n=7,231). Similar proportions of lesbian and heterosexual respondents reported a prior birth (53.6% and 58.2%, P=.62), whereas respondents who identified as something else were more likely to report having had a prior abortion (58.0% vs 43.9%, P=.01). Exposure to sexual violence was substantially and significantly higher among all three sexual minority groups compared with heterosexuals, and lesbian and bisexual respondents were also more likely than their heterosexual peers to report exposure to physical violence by the man involved in the pregnancy (33.3% and 8.7% vs 3.6%, P<.001).

Conclusion

No patient should be presumed to be heterosexual. Understanding the disproportionate role of sexual violence in unintended pregnancies among sexual minorities may aid in the design of interventions and clinical guidelines that address the needs of sexual minority patients.

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